We understand that salvation
is altogether by the grace of God. It is the result and work of the purpose,
purchase, and power of God. Regeneration and effectual calling are no more
dependent upon man than election and redemption. We believe by the working of
God’s mighty power. The call of God is an irresistible, effectual call. It is a
call by the gospel, a call of grace, and a call unto glory.

It is a call by the gospel. In our text, Paul told the
Thessalonian believers that God had called them to salvation by the gospel
which he preached to them (2 Thess. 2:13-14). He told the Ephesians believers
that they came to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ after that they heard the
word of truth, the gospel of their salvation accomplished in Christ (Eph.
1:13). This is a matter of immense importance. “It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” God does not
by-pass the means by which he has ordained the salvation of his elect. To
suggest such a thing is utterly ludicrous! If it is God’s pleasure to save his
elect by the preaching of the gospel, the only reason he would ever do
otherwise would be if he were caught in a bind and could not do things the way
he pleases! You don’t ever have to concern yourself about God Almighty ever
being caught in a bind! According to the plainest possible statements of the
New Testament, God saves his elect,
gives them life and faith in Christ, by the sovereign power of his Spirit, only
through the instrumentality of the preaching of the gospel (Rom. 1:16;
10:17; 1 Cor. 1:21-25; James 1:17; 1 Pet. 1:23-25). I stress this fact, because
it places upon our shoulders a tremendous burden of responsibility (Ezek.
33:7-9; 1 Cor. 9:16). I take the preaching of the gospel to be a deadly serious
responsibility. As a preacher, it is my
responsibility to seize every opportunity God puts before me to preach the
gospel. It is not enough merely to preach, or merely to preach the
doctrinal facts and moral lessons of Holy Scripture. The Word of God has not
been preached until the gospel has been preached (1 Pet. 1:25). As individual believers and as a local
church, it is our responsibility to use everything God puts in our hands and
seize every opportunity he gives us for the furtherance of the gospel. If
we faithfully meet these responsibilities and sinners refuse to believe the
gospel, their blood is forever upon their heads; but we have delivered our
souls and are free of their blood. If we refuse to meet these responsibilities,
their blood shall forever be upon our heads.

It is a call of grace. The Apostle Paul ascribed
his salvation experience on the Damascus road to the fact that God "called him by his grace" (Gal.
1:15). This call of God is a matter of pure, free, undeserved grace. God, as
the God of all grace, calls sinners to grace and glory by Christ. The
super-abundance of God’s grace is displayed in this call. The first open
display of God’s grace and the first discovery of his love to a sinner is made
when he is called. It is then that God brings salvation, life and immortality
to light by the gospel (2 Tim. 1: 9-10). It is by this call that we were drawn
with loving kindness, as a fruit and evidence of God’s everlasting love for us.
Therefore, the time of our calling is called the time of love (Jer. 31:3; Ezek.
16:8). When we think of the call of God as the work of his grace, three things
come to mind immediately.

1.The
call of God’s grace is the fruit of his everlasting love for us (Jer. 31:3).

2.The
call of God is issued to chosen sinners according to his sovereign will and
good pleasure (Mk. 3:13; Rom. 9:16).

It is unchangeable,
irreversible, and irrevocable. Those who are called of God to life and faith in
Christ shall be preserved safe to the kingdom and glory of God and shall most
certainly enjoy it in all its fullness forever. It is written “faithful is he that has called you, who
also will do it” (1 Thess.5:23-24).

Here is the happiness and joy of this doctrine. Those who are called of
God are assured by his Word of their election; for "whom he did predestinate, them he also called". Election
and calling always go together. The one is the fruit, effect, and evidence of
the other (2 Pet. 1:10). Election is revealed and known by the call of the
Spirit through the ministry of the Word (1 Thess. 1:4-5).

Being called of God, we are
also comfortably assured of our justification in and by Christ. "Whom he called, them he also
justified." If the Lord has called me, then I am justified. Therefore,
I have every reason to conclude that I am safe from all charges, from all
condemnation, and from wrath to come.

Moreover, if the Lord has
called me, if he has granted me faith in Christ, I must, believing his Word,
conclude that I shall at last enter into and possess eternal glory with Christ.
Are we not assured that all who are called of God are justified, and that those
who are justified by God, "them he
also glorified"? John Gill
rightly tells us that “Between calling grace and eternal happiness, there is a
sure and an inseparable connection.”

It is a call unto glory. The call of God is a call
to a state of happiness and bliss in another world. God "hath called you unto his kingdom and glory" (1 Thess.
2:12). He has called you to a glory, which is a kingdom; to possess a kingdom
of grace here, which cannot be removed; and to inherit the kingdom of glory
hereafter, which is an everlasting one.

He has called us"to the obtaining of the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. 2:14; John 17:22; Col. 3:4) and to
eternal glory by Christ Jesus (1 Pet. 5:10). Imagine that! We have been called
by God to "lay hold on eternal
life", (1 Tim. 6:12) and to an eternal inheritance. And "they which are called, receive the
promise of it".

What does all that mean? It means that we shall most assuredly enjoy
eternal, heavenly glory; having a meetness for it through the grace of God
(Col. 1:12) and the blood and righteousness of his dear Son. Indeed, by
Christ’s blood and righteousness, we have a right to it (1 Pet. 1:3-4; Heb.
9:15)

Child of God, we are all "called in one hope of our
calling" (Eph.4:4) to partake of the same inheritance with the saints
in light; and to enjoy the same blessed hope laid up for them in heaven. It is
for this hope of righteousness that we wait by faith, through the Holy Spirit,
trusting Christ alone as our all-sufficient Savior. That inheritance of the
saints for which we wait is the very glory of our Savior (Jn 17:22). The very
glory given to him as a man, as our God-man Mediator, shall be ours! Can you
grasp what I am telling you? You and I who are called of God are “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus
Christ”!

No
wonder the psalmist sang, "Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may
dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even
of thy holy temple" (Psa. 65:4).